"The Celebrity Apprentice:" Who's pulling the strings?
Pictures: "The Celebrity Apprentice"
And ironically, the most laid-back, drama-free contestant in the group - motorcycle enthusiast Paul Teutul Sr. - was fired by host Donald Trump.Fireworks began almost immediately when Lisa Lampanelli returned from last week's boardroom crowing about the dismissal of Lou Ferrigno. Clay Aikin thought that was a tad harsh and Lampanelli turned her venom on him.
It looked as if the enmity might continue unabated when Trump moved Aikin to Lampanelli's team, but instead the comedienne chose to continue her harassment of former Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza.
The two appeared to be working well together last week, when Mendoza was project manager, but this week Lampanelli, who stepped up as project manager, reverted to her usual pattern of marginalizing the beauty queen and then accusing her of doing little.
Teutul agreed to be project manager for the other team, even though he had no performance experience. The others all agreed to step up to the plate. Aubrey O'Day, accused of taking control of every task her team is assigned, toned it down this week, and even her chief critic - Arsenio Hall - took notice.
The task involved creating two puppets and using them in an improv puppet show for adults. On one team Lampanelli and Aikin handled the puppets and magician Penn Jillette was host; on the other, Hall and Teresa Giudice played with the puppets and O'Day was host.
Here are some questions that occurred to me:
Who knew Aiken was so good at improv? He was performing with Lampanelli who has a 22-year career in the comedy business, and his joke stole the show.
Could Giudice be any dumber? She obviously doesn't know what a syllable is; she can't correctly recite the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme; and she immediately breaks what has been stressed as the chief rule of improv - always say yes.
When did Lampanelli get a heart? In the boardroom, she broke down into tears and told Trump that if her team lost (it didn't) she would come back to the boardroom alone.
Why was Trump so harsh about Hall's performance? The judges said he had performed solidly, yet Trump kept demeaning it. In the end, he fired project manager Teutul because he gave Hall a pass and took Giudice and O'Day back instead.
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